Review: Martyn – Great Lengths

Label: 3024
Catalog#: 3024-005

Tracklist:
1. The Only Choice
2. krdl-t-grv
3. right?star!
4. Seventy Four
5. Little Things
6. Vancouver
7. These Words feat. dBridge
8. Bridge
9. Elden St.
10. Far Away
11. Hear Me
12. Is This Insanity? feat. Spaceape
13. Brilliant Orange
14. Natural Selection
15. Secret track???

Martyn’s anticipated album is due in two weeks on the 3024 label, which has a well recieved back catalogue that gets even more solid with this CD.

Martyn has a very defining dubstepXtechno sound, which is at taste with many DJs and fans alike. I personally got a bit tired of that perticular sound after a while, but this album really brings it to a different level. Pushing techno and dubstep into each other with a lot of style and original perception of the two, the sound seems to always come together in a pleasant mix of the energy from the broken beats and uncompromizing sound of techno.

The first track let us know that the 3024 label is the only choice – a track that easily could seem redicilous, but the way Martyn pulls it off it becomes a track that marks the attitude and self confidence that the album indeed has.

Continuing over to ‘krdl-t-grv’ and ‘right?star!’, which probably will be the most frequently played tracks of the album, a harder edge of the sound gets introduced. A sound that first came to the Martyn/3024-world with the fantastic ‘Vancouver’ (which is also on the album). Although I’d settle with the harder edge, Martyn displays a wide arrangement of styles over his own past releases which with all right should be represented on his debut album. The fourth track ‘Seventy Four’ is my least favorite track. It’s alright, just a bit boring. With ‘Little Things’, the dub vibe gets all the focus, making it a interesting piece and a special track. ‘Vancouver’ on the next is just as good as it has always been, placed perfectly on the album.

You can clearly hear a sort of Hyperdub-ish R&B influence on the track ‘These Words’, that features the voice of dBridge from the UK. An effort that I find very interesting and the result is very different. It will take a while to settle with it.

The interlude ‘Bridge’, a track that’s based on an organical piano line and no beats – fits perfectly as a bridge to the last tracks of the CD.

‘Elden St’ is a great track that has a faster paced groove to it that the others, as well as a sound that feels more detailed and processed. Great energy!

The same energy is transformed in ‘Far Away’, which sounds like a hommage to jungle than anything else. After a slowly building intro, a heavy and impressive beat structure gets the space it deserves. The other elements do subtle transformations around this structure which keeps the sound interesting and powerful.

A STL-ish vibe gets fuelled by Martyn on ‘Hear Me’, a track that has a house vibe to it but features drums that pushes it into a stepping groove. Fantastic track. ‘Is This Insanity?’ with The Spaceape, it sounds like it’s recorded in the same session as ‘Hear Me’, but with the spacious ape on the microphone. This is a really tripping track which sounds more like a UK production with a aware sense to it.

The second ambient material of the CD is also placed perfectly. Moving out the darkened sense of the tracks between ‘Bridge’ and ‘Brilliant Orange’, it takes things into a calmer sound. Spacious synths and a melancholic wall of sound brings in another dimension of Martyn’s music.

My favorite tracks:

Elden St.

Far Away

Hear Me

Secret Track? / Unknown? / ??????